“Even in 2009′s “Great Recession,” the amount of digital information grew 62% over 2008 to 800 billion gigabytes (0.8 Zettabytes). It is projected that the amount of digital information that will be created in 2010 could fill 75 billion fully-loaded 16 GB Apple iPads.

What’s critical to realize is that 35% more digital information is created today than the capacity exists to store it; and this number will jump to over 60% over the next several years.

While it might seem the responsibility of the consumer, most of these gigabytes of data will pass through the servers, network, or routers of an enterprise at some point. When they do, the enterprise is responsible at that moment for managing that content, protecting user privacy, watching over account information, and protecting copyright.”

How about things like vinyl records, analog film, or old video games? Converting these things to digital formats (or, for video games, “emulating” the gameplay on different hardware) loses exactly what makes these things great. Or does it?

Such an odd post. The title doesn’t connect with the text. The implied answer is no, we can’t store everything. Someone is making decisions about what is stored. While there are certainly responsibilities associated with the data that “passes through”, the issues are really about who is responsible, how do they make decisions and what commitment have they made? Permanent storage (with preservation)? Temporary storage (w/authority to delete)? Access or no? Who owns this stuff anyway? We are so good at creating data but so bad at effectively managing it. Time to go purchase another terabyte for next month!

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About The Author

Stephen Abram is a librarian and principal with Lighthouse Consulting Inc., and executive director of the Federation of Ontario Public Libraries. He blogs on library strategies for direction, marketing, technology and user alignment.